Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

A loss worth remembering

I think the Red Sox showed more about themselves as a team in Monday night’s loss than they have in nearly any of their victories this season. That night was just not set up for success.

Late Sunday game against the Yankees ends after midnight. Long flight that had the Red Sox spend all of their normal sleeping hours in the air. Arrival in Oakland in the wee hours of the morning . A game that night.

Terry Francona, who in my estimation, has done a masterful job this season, knew it was prudent to get some guys rest. No Julio Lugo, no Mike Lowell, no Jason Varitek, Coco Crisp stayed out of the lineup because of an illness. And the bullpen decided to go to battle without the top tandem of Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon.

Still, the Sox were plucky enough to stay in this thing. Down 4-2 going into the ninth. Jerry Remy quickly pointed out that the A’s should have kept in their lefty with the tough arm angle to face David Ortiz instead of the straight-armed Alan Embree. Remy proves correct as Ortiz leads the inning off with a double. Manny strikes out. Youkilis grounds out. And Francona does a fairly gutsy thing here, hitting Jason Varitek for J.D. Drew. I say gutsy because many managers don’t pinch-hit for a hitter of Drew’s caliber — even if he’s in a slump — because the player might lose confidence or feel disrespected. At any rate, Varitek responds with a bloop single, bringing in a run to cut the lead to one.

Crisp was too sick to start, but Tito calls on him to run for ‘Tek. That only ends up being huge when he calls for a hit and run and Pena wacks one into the gap in right-center. Coco scores all the way from first. Do you guys realize where Wily Mo’s liner would have went if Coco didn’t take off? You got it — right where the second baseman would have been standing, that’s where.

Anyway, bottom of the 9th now and the bases are loaded with nobody out, thanks in large part to Eric Hinske booting an easy grounder. So what happens next? J.C. Romero gets a huge strikeout and then a 5-2-3 DP to end the inning. The sight of Hinske widely smiling and pumping his fist was great to see. He got picked up by a teammate and he’s loving it. Hinske is a tremendous teammate and his excitement was due to the fact that he would have been crushed if he had lost the team the game. Romero, who had some control issues, was equally ecstatic. Here are two of the more unheralded players on the team coming up huge on a night many of the stars were out. That does wonders for a team.

The Sox finally lose the game in the bottom of the 11th when Chavez loses a meaty offering from Snyder. But that’s besides the point. This team played with all of their collective heart on a night they very easily could have lost 7-2 — remember Tavarez was pitching against A’s ace Dan Haren — and nobody would have knocked them. But they went down fighting until the end.

I thought that said a lot about the character of the club. That’s all.

57 Comments

I went to bad last night down 3-1 and thought there is no way possible we were going to come back. Nice to see we almost got the W. I know Houston Street is injured, but do the A’s really think Embree is the answer? Geez, that guy jumped the shark years ago.

Ya im all for lester making his debut soon. tavarez cant get past the 5th inning anyway so why not bring lester up now. even if he only goes 75-80 pitches, im sure that would take him deeper then wake or tavarez have lately.

I wouldn’t be so sure about the effectiveness of letting Lester throw 75-80 pitches in a major league game.

Last year, in 15 games pitched, he went more than 6 innings two times. This is because walked a lot of batters and ran his pitch count up. While nothing suggests that he will do the same this year, 75-80 pitches from Lester might only get us through 4 innings.

With that being said, obviously I’m all for his call-up but no sense in rushing things when Tavarez is proving himself to be plenty capable of holding down the #5 slot.

Dice-K needs to go pretty deep tonight in order to rest the bullpen, although I’m sure Okajima and Papelbon are both available. So how about 7 from Dice, then let the other 2 shut it down? Sounds good to me.

Daisuke will give the Sox his usual six or seven innings. I would like to see Papel-bot hit 96 tonight if he comes in though. Am starting to worry about a tired arm, of course it could be just the fact that his appearances have been spotty.

ya i suppose im jumping the gun on the lester thing..just anxious to see him back. ill agree for the most part tavarez is doing well for the 5 slot. Hoping wake turns it back around too. Ill go for the 7-8 innings for the dice man maybe 9 if the sox could rough up lenny a little bit. Time for a Drew homer tonight!

I agree with the previous comments that it is so frustrating for the A’s to have our number recently, especially considering that they really have no hitting whatsoever. Their cleanup hitter is Dan Johnson for God’s sake.

I’m not a fan at all of Pedroia bunting in the first inning. Way too conservative. Lugo finally gets a hit and we take the bat out of the hands of one of the hottest hitters in the game. How often do we leave the bases loaded??? Wouldn’t an extra out have helped? Maybe a hit and run with Lugo and Pedroia? Really, really, really weak.

Ian I totally agree about the character of this team. They battled hard on no sleep and honestly they could have mailed it in especially when they were down all night long. My problem is with Francona and the fact that he feels the need to sit 4 of our starters against one of the Al’ best pitchers thus far. I think Francona has done a great job this season and I think that he has handled both hitters and pitcher in a very conservative way. My only problem is why can’t the guy make adjustments throughout the course of a game and play with a killer instinct. It seems as though when the whole division loses games the Red Sox feel that the game doesnt mean as much and it should mean more. Do they ahve access to find out the white sox Yankees score before they make out the lineup card?? The Yankees are in disarray and we should be putting them away. I like Terry and I think he’s the right guy for this team and city but when is he going to show that killer instinct we have all been waiting for??

The gap between those who contribute and those who don’t on this team is huge. Lugo, Drew, Crisp, and Pena are awful. There really is no in between… everyone else contributes. The problem is when our “good” players are having an off day… we’re toast.

Its’s Drew and Crisp Im worried about. Pen is right by saying give Pena more at bats, when are we going to just do that instead of waiting for Drew to come out of his season long slump. Why is Crisp so terrible at the plate this year, maybe he can’t handle playing in Boston. It’s a good thing Pedroia, Youk and Lowell are playing above expectations.

Pineiro should be traded for some prospects. He should go. And so should Coco. Coco has to go. Coco would be gone already if not for his defense. He offense is awful. Lugo & JD are in extended slumps and should pick it up. Coco is in slump from the start of 2006. That is one and half year slump if u r counting.He never hit for average,never gets on-base, doen’t walk much, doesn’t take a lot of pitches(how many times have we seen him swing at the 1st pitch and pop-up to infeild),regularly Grounds into double plays even with his speed(my guess is he has the record for most GIDP in the past 2 years).

Coco doesn’t deserve to be on this team and he has to go. We have Moss, Murphy & Elsbury and Murphy played with Sox last year. Why not bring up Murphy from AAA and get rid(for some prospects) of Coco. Murphy even with his adjustment to major leagues can’t be any worse than Coco. We have lot of options to play CF in AAA why not use them when our current CF failed to deliver for the past one and half years.

Kumar, I severely doubt ANYBODY would give us prospects for Piniero. I sure as heck wouldn’t. He’ll come around and his pitching as been able to get worked around thanks to the rest of our bullpen. The days he’s on, he’s pretty decent. Keep in mind, he was a starter, so once Lester comes back, we would have technically 3 starters in the bullpen that could be used as middle to long relievers: Tavarez, Snyder, and Piniero. While they’re not great, having those type of rubber arms in the bullpen is always a plus.

As for Coco, he’s not going anywhere unless he slumps into next year and into it. The Red Sox paid a decent sized contract for him, and not many teams will want to pay much of it if anything at all if we try to trade him. By your logic, if Lugo and JD will be alright, then so should Coco. We saw how he was with the Indians, he should get there sooner rather than later.

I love how we lose 3 games in a row, and our “boo-birds” start showing up on the boards and blogs. I can only imagine what everybody’s reaction would be if we had a record like the Yankees. If we’re gonna give 2 guys a chance on the team, then give them all a chance. Besides, if you want an extended slump, Lugo wasn’t doing so well with the Dodgers in the last half of the season either.

Although I’m surprised we didn’t beat up on DiNardo; Billy Beane has knack of picking up “rejects” and turning them into great pitchers.

We’re certainly not going to keep this distance between us and the rest of the league with 6+ guys hitting .240 or below (Drew, Crisp, Lugo, Pena, Mirabelli, Hinske).

I am definitely very worried about Lugo. He hadn’t played in a meaningful game in years until he got traded to LA last year… and he was horrendous there. All the talk about the “pressure” has been completely misdirected… Pedroia is a gutsy competitor, Lugo is an underachiever that should be sent down to the #8 or #9 spot until he decides to contribute. Here is the line-up we should see soon:

Pedroia

Youkalis

Ortiz

Ramirez

Lowell

Varitek

Drew

Crisp

Lugo

Just about 60 games into the year… it’s time to start talking about accountability. This line up might even give Ortiz a little more protection… Now teams can bring in a lefty to face Ortiz and Drew. Wouldn’t work as well with Lowell following Manny.

I disagree about Francona being “too conservative” with his pitchers and hitters. He has let Beckett, Schilling, and Dice-K go over the “dreaded” 100-pitch mark more times this year than I can ever remember. I hate the stigma that is attached to 100 pitches, it’s like that number actually means something and on the 101st pitch, Beckett will lose 7 mph on his fastball or Schill’s splitter won’t bite or Matsuzaka’s gyro won’t gyro.

As for the “killer instinct”, did you not watch Tuesday night’s game? Tito emptied his bench in the 9th inning to try and produce another run. He pinch hit Lugo for Cora, ‘Tek for Drew, had Crisp pinch-run for ‘Tek and then had Lowell pinch hit for Hinske. If any position player got injured, the Red Sox had nobody left on the bench. I’d say that’s the opposite of conservative, but that’s just me.

Anybody remember the beginning of 2006 when Crisp opened up the season on a tear? Obviously the pressure of Boston is not his problem, maybe it’s still that same finger he injured last year? But I still maintain that having Coco hit 8 or 9 in the lineup and playing one of the best centerfield’s in the majors (this year) is more productive than having Wily Mo stumble around out there. It’s not necessarily that he can’t track fly balls (although on Cincinatti he knocked a ball over the short right field fence with his glove and then did the same in Boston the next year), but it’s the line drives in the gaps. He either overruns them, tries to backhand them, or just bobbles the ball and allows the baserunner to take an extra base everytime.

Maybe I’m just more patient than you guys, but I really don’t have a problem with Crisp. He is a legitimate stolen base threat and can lay down a bunt. Ellsbury is just not ready yet, why rush him?

One thing that should be noted is the Red Sox ability to get out of jams lately. In the past three games, there have been runners on 3rd with no outs and 0 runs have scored as a result. Good to see pitchers like Javier Lopez and JC Romero digging extra deep to find that first strikeout.

Piniero’s days are numbered in the redsox bullpen. If Timlin returns then they have to move someone out to make room for him. Paps, Oki, Snyder, Donnely are not going anywhere. They have to move Romero, Piniero or Lopez(even though he is pitching well him and Oki are the only one’s with minor league options). I guess Lopez will be send down to AAA. That solves the problem for sometime until Lester returns.Then Tavarez returns to the bullpen and they have to move Romero or Piniero. So I think it will be Piniero. What I am saying is why not trade Piniero for some prospects(any prospects…they don’t even have to decent).

R u kidding me? Coco went on a tear????? He played 4 games and got injured in the 5th game. That was in 1st week of April 2006. So, he went on a tear for 4.5 games at the start of 2006. Now it is June 2006. Coco was awful the whole of 2006 and 1/3 of the 2007. He is not showing any signs of breaking out for the past One and half years. He doesn’t deserve a spot on the club. He has to go. I don’t wan’t to rush Elsbury, he is our future CF. But we have Brian Murphy who already played for Sox last year. We can bring Murphy from AAA and make him our CF. Murphy has speed on the bases like Coco. Even if he stinks for a couple of starts He will still be a better option than Coco. Coco has to go.

The funny thing about baseball is the inclination to want to react to trends over a small period of time. So we put Pedroia at the top of the order – what if he falls into the same slump seen not much more than one month ago? Lowell could easily slump like he did in the second half of last year. You need to give players time to work their way out of them.

I like our lineup and the order of it a lot. This is the team that has jumped out to a great lead, do you really want to mess with that? Sometimes trying to improve it can take away the stability.

I’m with you Zachary, I’m fine with Coco Crisp and how he’s doing. He could easily find his way back to original Cleveland levels. The fact is with our lead he is a luxury we can afford at the moment and the benefits if he comes around will be huge. Don’t forget he is also the guy that hit the game-tying triple against Mariano Rivera earlier this season, scored the tying run against Oakland with his speed, and has saved countless runs through his outstanding defense. He does a lot of things to help this club.

There should be wariness about using youngsters too early. Using Hansen and Delcarmen too early may have set them back months in their development. The same applies for outfield players.

Finally, Rayman – I disagree, we can easily maintain our lead with six guys batting .240. First, three of them are bench players. Second, there are so many other factors than just the average of the other three guys. Look at the Yankees. Until last week, Jeter was hitting about .350, Posada .370 and A-Rod had the best month of April ever. I don’t think they had three every day players batting below .240 this season, but that didn’t have much effect on the standings.

I havn’t posted in a long time but I read your comments each day . . . something to look forward to. I want to give you guys some stats:
at age 27 a certain player who played centerfield had the following career stats:

at bats: 3856

stolen bases: 183

Homeruns: 74

batting avererage: .286

strikeouts: 490

RBIs: 401

Coco’s stats at the same age of 27:

at bats: 2228

stolen bases: 88

Homeruns: 44

Batting average: .278

strikeouts: 315

RBIs: 228

Pretty similar due to the fact that the other guy has over 1600 more at bats. Who is this person? Johnny Damon. The take home point is, which I agree gets less and less meaningful as Coco gets older and doen’t produce, is that Coco is still young with a ton of potential. When the Red Sox signed Damon during the off season in 2001 he signed a 4 year $31.2 million dollar contract. Coco’s at what $2.1 million per year? Granted we gave up Marte and Shoppach for him. But don’t underestimate the value of defense when comparing those numbers because we all know Damon was a hack and Sparky Anderson always said be strong up the middle. Look, Ricky Henderson was probably the best lead off man ever, Damon is arguably the best in the last 5-6 years. If Coco can get his act together I don’t see why from a potential stand point (and money standpoint) he won’t be fine. Remember Coco’s last two season with Cleveland he averaged .300 15 homeruns and 70 RBIs with 38 stolen bases. Of course he has to get his act together and it is more than frustrating to whatch him kill rallys like he can. This argument was alot better in December of 2005 when I was comparing Damon v. Crisp, but I think I’ll still stick to it for one more season.

Actually, Cano, Abreu, Damon and Mientkiewicz were all below .260, Cano Abreu and Mientkiewicz below .240 and Mientkiewicz for most of April below .200.

Then when Cano and Mientkiewicz started hitting a little better, Abreu and Giambi hit a lot worse. So, really, it can effect the standings, I promise. The only guys who have hit consistantly all season have been Jeter and Posada, much like Lowell and Youkilis. A-Rod has been good more often than not (two slumps here and there) much like Ortiz. The X factor to me offensively is Pedroia, but now Cano and Abreu are starting to get hot, so the Yankees offense the next few series’ should be interesting.

Yes but we were talking about the average over the entire season as a whole to date. And when you look at the stats for the season to date, I don’t think there are three regular Yankee players batting below .240. Actually, just looking at your post, it does not seem like there are any that have batted below this mark over the season to date.

OK, folks, looks like we might get what we all should have been expecting; a little downturn from the Sox. Could we have realistically expected them to play .700 ball all year? Let’s see if they can pull out of it quicker rather than slower.

Re Coco: it IS frustrating to watch him now. But he has a lot of ability and will produce at some time. The way this season has gone for the Sox he will pick it up just when the team really needs him. All he has to do is figure a way to get on base, then he can really make things happen. Of course, the team needed him last night, but I am thinking more at the latter half of the season(when all the other guys are tired from running the bases all year, lol)

The Red Sox could have some issues real soon if we’re not careful. A little over 1/3 of our starting lineup are deadbeats through roughly 60 games. I count Mirabelli as 1/5 of a starter.

Our defense is in the bottom third statistically.

Our pitching was lights out in the beginning of the season, but is starting to show some cracks. Beckett has certainly been pitching at a #1 level, but nobody would be surprised if he came back to earth a little and settled in around a 3.30 ERA. This may not sound too popular… but I don’t consider us having a #2 starter right now. Schilling is 40 years only. His ERA 2 years ago was 5.60+… His ERA last year was about 4… His ERA this year is about 4 and rising steadily. Those aren’t #2 starter numbers especially in a division with no other teams over .500. Matsuka’s ERA is 4.63. I’m pretty confident he’ll get that down around 4 eventually and pencil him in as a solid #3. Wakefield has averaged about a 4.30 ERA over the last 5 years (never below 4.09). I pencil him in as a steady #5. Tavarez stinks, plain and simple. People can put as much lipstick on his 5.33 ERA that they like… he’s not a #5 starter. In summary… we are missing a #2 and #4 starter to be considered an elite team. Hopefully Lester will improve the situation… maybe a trade… In any case, we’ve lost 5 out of 6 and need a spark to get back on track.

Mientkiewicz was .226 before injury. The Yankees have 4 guys .260 and below including their leadoff hitter (Damon at .260) and then only Josh Phelps off the bench is batting above .260. So yes, technically, of the starters, there are none currently hitting below .240, though Cabrera, Damon and Abreu are all below .260.

Haha the Red Sox have lost 3 in a row and 4 out of 5, the sky is falling.

Arnie is right, we cannot realistically play .700 baseball for 162 games, so as long as this miniature losing streak doesn’t turn into anything big, there is no reason to panic. Unfortunately, we have Wakefield going tonight so there’s no guarantees that the slump will be busted up. Hopefully he can rediscover whatever was working in his first 7-8 starts. I’ve said it a thousand times, but it all starts with getting that first runner out. That, and throwing strikes.

Coco hit .434 in 2006 Spring Training and .333 after five games. Say what you will about spring training numbers, but the fact was Crisp had something going before his injury.

David Murphy cannot play CF for the Red Sox right now. He hit .267 at Pawtucket last season and neither speed nor defense is better than Crisp’s, therefore you would rather take a chance on an unproven rookie than keep playing Crisp? Maybe it’s because everybody’s expectations for Crisp are so high from his Cleveland days, but he’s really not at the top of my list of worries for the Sox.

Is JD Drew hitting for average? Playing an outstanding outfield? Stealing bases? No. He is a much bigger concern right now.

Do you really expect Francona to completely shake up a team with the best record in baseball? That would be extremely unintelligent, he’s doing the right thing and fixing problems one at a time. First things first, get Wily Mo some at-bats and let Drew get his legs back under him and hopefully break out of his slump.

So the point is proved that the team can have three guys batting .240 and under and still survive.

Zachary – I agree with you completely, with the exception of resting Drew. Hs is 1/3 of the way through his first of five seasons. I think they need to show faith in him. I think he’ll break out of his smulp the more at bats he gets.

rayman, ERA’s normally go up as the year progresses. Not to worry. Wake is a concern right now, but I think he’ll get his act together. Schill seems to be adjusting to his lack of velocity and I have confidence he’ll learn to hit his spots and get a little more break on his pitches. Lester will help in the 2nd half of the season. Defense is going to improve. Early in the year Pedroia was booting some chances and Lowell went thru a bad stretch, and of course, the more WMP gets at-bats the more he’ll kick the ball around the outfeild. On the whole the defense is solid. Not as good as last year, but solid.

Fracona has managed well. He knows when a player has talent and he has said before that sitting on the bench does not get you out of a slump. Look at Pedroia, Bellhorn etc. I feel that Coco, Drew, Lugo will come around.

Tonight’s start is 100% in line with today’s comments. Starting the game off with one out about 72% of the time leads to exactly what happened today. Pitch around Papi and Manny and leave it up to a clutch 2 out hit. Why not give the middle of the line up a little more of a chance. Lugo just can’t get on base.

Second inning leaves… “I promise to come back in better shape this year” Mirabelli grounding into a DP.

We might not be able to do anything with Mirabelli… but Lugo has to go down. If my original prediction of 6 games comes true… the lineup will be Pedroia, Youkalis within 2 games.

At least Wakefield is throwing strikes tonight. Granted it is against Oakland but he is pitching well. You’re right rayman, Lugo is beginning to wear on my last nerve as well. Not only making outs but making them on 1 or 2 pitches, that is not a leadoff hitter. But the Sox have to make due with whatever he does since they signed him long-term.

Maybe that forfeit thing you mentioned a few nights ago rayman wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, lol. In all seriousness though it is almost like they used all this energy on Monday night when they were already exhausted and it has cost them these last two games.

I missed the first three innings of the game tonight. Now what’s wrong with the 70 million dollar man. He’s everything he was cracked up to be, and less.

Wakefield is hanging tough.

The real problem in this little bad streak isn’t Crisp, Lugo, Drew or Pena. They have stunk all year. The real problem is that Youk, Pedroia and Lowell are coming back to Earth. I mean, let’s be real. Youk isn’t going to hit .350, Pedroia isn’t going to hit .330, and Lowell isn’t going to hit .340. They are all good players and solid .280 or .290 hitters.

….Break….Double by Manny, Triple by Youk…… Please Youk, make a liar out of me.

Overachievers will come back to Earth. Underachievers then have to pick it up, or the Sox are in trouble.

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